In the last year or two, many of us have been faced with learning how to manage our work-life balance. We were thrown into working from home, and I don’t know about you, but I ended up working very random and often longer hours, as work was easily accessible from my ‘tiny box’ home office.
Over the months, I’ve become better at managing this and now consider myself a segmentor, not to be confused with a dementor Harry Potter fans! However, it’s been a rocky road and for many of you reading this blog, your organisation may still be in the midst of determining whether or not you will return to the office full-time, remain at home or if the future is hybrid.
With all this impending uncertainty in our work-lives, now more than ever having a good work life-balance is critical. When we have more stability in one area of our lives, we are more resilient in coping with uncertainty in another area of our lives and dividing work and home life can be a good way of building that resilience. In this blog, I share why creating a good work-life balance is important for your teams, share some of the latest research and science on work-life balance and discuss why you should be encouraging a better balance in your organization due to the wealth of benefits for everyone involved.
What is a segmentor and integrator?
Before we go into the importance of work-life balance, what exactly is a segmentor or integrator I hear you say...and how can you identify them?
First let’s chat segmentors!
These individuals create a rigid boundary between their personal and work lives. They shut their laptops at close of business and don’t return to the daily grind until opening time the next day. They may have a physical ritual to detach themselves from work to home… prior to COVID this may have been a commute home or getting changed into their comfy clothes when they get back home. But when working from home, they tend to get a little more creative.
As a segmentor myself, I go for a walk in the morning just before I start work, as a placebo commute! I also move into another room on my lunch to physically detach myself from my laptop, so it’s out of sight and out of mind.
By contrast, an integrator is someone who’s work and home life is a blur. It has no start and no end… there is no clear line drawn between the two, and they thrive when working any and all hours to get the job done. These individuals may take comfort in their work routine and enjoy working so much that they view it as a part of their home lives, or I guess, part of their lives as they do not separate the two. Think of a business owner for example, they often run a business based on a hobby that they enjoy, and so business success is part of their lives and the challenges are often their ‘kicks in life’.
Now, in this blog I am not here to tell you that we should all be segmentors...because if we were all the same that would be boring. However, unsurprisingly much of your workforce will have a preference to segment and a small minority to integrate. And as you will see from research, segmentors are generally happier at work and naturally have a better work-life balance. Where problems may begin to arise is when preferenced segmentors feel the need to behave as integrators for prolonged periods of time.
Read our complete blog how to encourage work life balance in organization.You can take virtual workshops So,visit us.
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